Tony Allen is the soul of Memphis’ grit and grind style. He’s one of the game’s best on-ball defenders, and he finds a way to get enough offense to make it work. It’s not always pretty, but it’s effective.

“I can’t envision myself no place else,” he said. “I got about five more years.”

Allen is 33 right now, so we’ll see about five years. Allen has two seasons left on his deal at a very reasonable $10.7 million total. He will be a free agent in 2017, and a lot of teams likely will have interest in him — and with the spiked salary cap he could see a raise — but it sounds like Memphis will be able to keep him.

Allen was understandably frustrated with how the Grizzlies’ season ended. They fell to the Warriors in the second round, a series that turned when Golden State switched Andrew Bogut onto the injured Allen defensively (which allowed Bogut to patrol the paint and dare Allen to beat them with his inconsistent jumper).

“When they pulled that strategy, man, I was hurt,” he said. “If they try that s—- again …

“Had I been healthy, and they had somebody (like Bogut) on me, I probably would have showed up in a different way in a game as far as rebounding, steals,” Allen said. “Them putting Bogut on me simply affected our team because of injury.”

He may well get a chance to prove his point. Memphis is going to need a healthy Tony Allen, plus Matt Barnes and the rest of the wings to knock down some outside shots, but they will be in the mix in a once again very crowded Western Conference.

According to a person with knowledge of his situation, the free agent forward … has serious interest in playing for the San Antonio Spurs or the Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors have the taxpayer mid-level exception ($3,376,000). Perhaps, they’d sign West and trade the similarly styled Marreese Speights ($3,815,000) to save a little money – savings that would be multiplied due to the luxury tax. Or they could keep both and have riches of big-men depth with Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli. That becomes more palatable if West will take a minimum contract.

The Spurs could look to West if they strike out on LaMarcus Aldridge. If they get Aldridge, they’d still have the room exception ($2,814,000), though that probably goes to Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobili. Most likely, West would have to take a minimum contract.

If he wants to win a title, though, Golden State and San Antonio are excellent places to look.

We tried to tell you when talks “broke down” between the Warriors and Draymond Green on a new contract that this was just a matter of the two sides finding a number. The Warriors couldn’t let Green go, he is too central to what they do defensively, he was second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and his ability to switch picks and guard multiple positions is key for Golden State’s top-ranked defense. Plus he can knock down threes, is the emotional center for the team, and Green averaged 11.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game last season.

The two sides have figured it out.

From Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports and Sam Amick of the USA Today.

The Warriors have agreed to terms on a five-year, $85 million deal with their free agent forward Draymond Green, a source told Yahoo.

Along with the extension given Klay Thompson a year ago and the 2017 max deal, the Warriors will give Stephen Curry, keeps the core of this team together for years. They are going to be contenders for a while. (And the West is loading up to challenge them.)

There will be costs to the Warriors down the line, it may be difficult to pay players such as Harrison Barnes or Andrew Bogut the market rate. GM Bob Myers will have some future challenges.

But for now, the Warriors are keeping the band together — and they will be at the top of the West for a while.

NEW YORK — The players expected to be taken with the first two picks in Thursday’s NBA Draft have the potential to be franchise-changing big men, even in a league that seems to be moving away from their style of play and into a new era of basketball.

The Golden State Warriors just completed an historically great season, and did so by having versatile players in the lineup who used their high level of athleticism to play stifling team defense. On the offensive end of the floor, the three-point shot was the weapon of choice, and a shift to a smaller lineup was what gave the Cavaliers fits in the later stages of the NBA Finals, and allowed the Warriors to take control and secure a title for the first time in 40 years.

But despite the shift in how plenty of teams will look to operate because of the success we’ve seen in Golden State, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor both believe that the back-to-the-basket bigs will continue to have a place in the league for years to come.

“I think [post play] can be effective because it’s still an art,” Towns said. “It’s still something that needs to be done. You still need the big man to do the dirty work, and also change up the philosophy of the defense. Everything’s a chess match. Everything has a counter. Having a player play with his back to the basket changes up the game, because it changes up the way you look at the offense and the way you have to play defense. The spacing it creates, also, is awesome.”

In the Finals, the winning move on the chess board was to bench Andrew Bogut, who had started in all but two of his 166 appearances for the Warriors over the last three regular seasons. Okafor, however, sees that as the exception, and not the rule.

“Because it’s always been effective,” Okafor said, when asked why he believes post play can still be featured offensively. “It was one series of Golden State playing small ball. Big men have always been effective in the NBA.”

“I have no doubts about my scoring ability in the NBA,” he added.

If league-wide changes are in store, Towns believes they’ll be based on genetics rather than teams simply choosing to move toward a style that was proven to be successful most recently.

“For me, I don’t see the league changing, I see us as humans changing,” Towns said. “I’m watching the other day, seventh-graders are putting their heads at the rim dunking. I didn’t see that when I was back in my day, which is not too long ago.

“When I was back in seventh grade I had never seen a kid put his head at the rim dunking with ease, windmills, through the legs. Humans are changing. We’re getting quicker, faster, stronger — more precise. The league isn’t changing, but this new crop of talent, this new generation of talent is changing the way the league is played because of how explosive, how fast, how quick we are all becoming.”

Both Towns and Okafor have done the majority of their damage inside to this point of their budding careers, and both are expected to make an immediate impact at the professional level. Okafor is seen as already having an elite offensive skill set, but will need to improve defensively. Towns is viewed by most as having better all-around tools, and his passing and shot-blocking ability make him a two-way threat with more upside, which gives Minnesota plenty of reasons to have him slotted in as a potential number one overall selection.

But Towns wouldn’t get caught hyping his own chances.

“It’s not about why do I believe I should be [the No. 1 pick],” he said. “I just know that I’ve put a lot of work into the game, a lot of hours of quality, great work, working on my body and on my craft. No matter where I go, I know that I have the confidence in me that I feel that I’d be (the one) helping my teammates the most.”

We’re going to enjoy this for the whole summer and even into next year. But we want to get another one, because this feels amazing.

The Warriors definitely have a strong chance to repeat.

Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, Shaun Livingston and Festus Ezeli are all under contract for next season. Draymond Green will be a restricted free agent, and he’s a practical lock to return.

There’s value in continuity, but there’s risk of locking into the wrong group We already know this team can win a title, so that risk is eliminated.

The Warriors, like all champions, had good fortune with injuries for themselves and opponents. That’s no lock to continue next season.

But they’ve put themselves among the select few teams in strong title contention. At this point, that’s all you can ask.